We're pleased to announce a new series of articles written by our historian
Dave Bronson. The theme of the series is "That's the Way It Was
... 60 Years Ago" (with apologies to Walter Cronkite). These
articles will describe LST-325's activities 60 years ago as she and her
crew were preparing for, and then participating in, the D-Day Invasion
at Normandy. We hope you'll enjoy them, and learn a bit more about
LST-325's illustrious history.

Dave hopes to have a book on the LST-325 completed by the 60th anniversary
of D-Day. It will be entitled Mosier's Raiders. We owe
him a debt of gratitude for all he's done for the 325 and this website.
Thanks, Dave!

LST-325's Crew in 1944Click on the image for
an enlargementDave's Dad, James Bronson
(MoMM1)is on the right in a
prone position.

:
EARLY JUNE 1944

On the morning of June 2, the LST-325 moored to the Turnware
hard and began loading aboard their combat load for the Normandy invasion.
A total of 59 vehicles were loaded onto the main and tank decks, after
which 31 officers and 408 enlisted men of the 30th Chemical Decontamination
Company (5th Special Engineer Brigade) under the command of a Captain Moore,
US Army, embarked onto the ship and began stowing away their gear and getting
acquainted to their surroundings. Afterward, the LST-325 left
the hard and moored out in Falmouth harbor, where that afternoon a pontoon
causeway and a Rhino tug were brought alongside; the ship would tow these
two craft to Normandy.

The following day a few last minute fire and general quarters drills
were held for the crew, and additional medical supplies were received from
the base. That evening a church service was held on the forecastle of the
ship for all soldiers and sailors; attendance was much higher than usual.

At 0430 on June 4, the escort ships for the convoy of LSTs leaving from
Falmouth stood out of the harbor and formed a screen to seaward. The LST-325
followed the LST-331, the flagship of the LST section, out past
the boom gates at the entrance of the harbor and moved into her assigned
position. However, at 0630 the order came from Falmouth to return to the
harbor; due to the adverse weather conditions along the French coast the
Allied Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower, had made the decision to
postpone the operation for 24 hours. By midnight the weather began to clear
and the invasion was on.

At 0535, the LST-325 weighed anchor once more and moved out of
the harbor and into her assigned position, directly behind the LST-331
in the center column of a three-column formation. At 0700 the LSTs and
their escorts anchored to wait for a large group of ships, the bombardment
group of the convoy, to clear out of the eastbound coastal channel that
they were assigned to follow. The formation was soon joined by three more
LSTs from Helford, and later by nine LSTs from Foway. The command ship
for the invasion, the U.S.S. Augusta, departed from Plymouth and
passed ahead of the convoy, now designated ECL-1, and signaled to the LSTs,
"You look good."

All through June 6th the convoy moved slowly closer to the French coast,
advancing at a speed of five knots. Throughout the morning large flights
of Allied transport aircraft passed overhead ion both directions, and once
daylight came the men aboard LST-325 could finally see the immense
fleet that they were now part of. Echoes from the distant naval bombardment
of the beachhead could be seen along the southern skyline, and flashes
of artillery could be seen. Finally, at 1835, the convoy was ordered to
re-form into a two column formation, and begin advancing through the narrow
channel cleared of German mines to the invasion beaches. After midnight
several star shells and flares could be seen off in the distance, at ships
ahead of the convoy cme under attack by the German air force, but none
approached the convoy.

At 0735 the French coastline came into view and soon the LSTs with orders
to the Omaha Beach sector continued on while the ships bound for Utah broke
away from the convoy. At 0943 the LST-325 dropped anchor off the
Fox Red sector and three of the DUKW's onboard drove off the ship's open
bow ramp and began making their way into shore. At the same time the Rhino
Tug took the pontoon causeway under tow and also began heading towards
the beach. The ship then moved closer in to the beach and disembarked the
remaining DUKW's while the soldiers onboard began to load themselves into
LCM's, DUKW's and LCVP's. This continued throughout the day, while casualties
were brought out to the ship and treated by the medical teams onboard.
Meanwhile the crew was kept busy supplying hot food and coffee to the exhausted
crews of the landing craft that were moving back and forth between the
ships anchored offshore and the beach.

After daybreak on June 8 the unloading continued until finally the last
vehicles and men who disembarked at 1040. Additional casualties were evacuated
to the ship, bringing the total on board to 38. Of those evacuated to the
LST-325, three of them would die from their wounds. Two of the soldiers,
Private Raymond Prince of the 116th Infantry, and Tech Sgt. J. McMurray
of the 37th Engineers, would be taken back to Omaha Beach for burial; the
third, Pfc. Thomas Legacy, 299th Engineers, would pass away before the
ship reached Weymouth on June 9th.

The ship's trip to France would be repeated forty-three more times before
the war came to an end, and they would make landings at each of the invasion
beaches, Cherbourg, Le Havre, and up the Seine River. Two trips were made
to the eastern side of the Cotentin peninsula carrying ammunition to the
armies besieging Brest.

~ Dave Bronson

Click
on any of theimages
for enlargements

Stan Barish
at aninland German minefield on 12 June 1944

Unloading operations,7 June 1944

Fully-loaded LCMdeparting the ship'sbow on 7 June 1944

Truck emerging from the tankdeck, 12 June 1944

155mm "Long Tom" gun,12 June 1944

This concludes Dave's mini-series of LST-325's preparations
for, and the invasion of Normandy during the year 1944.

Dave Bronson is the son of James Bronson, MoMM1, LST-325, 1943-1945.
Long before LST-325 was chosen as the LST Memorial Ship, Dave had begun
compiling research materials on the ship's and crew's histories.
A few years back, he assembled together several of his Dad's shipmates.
At that time, he conceived the idea of compiling his work into a book
for the ship's "family." Imagine his surprise when the
LST-325 was ultimately chosen as our LST Memorial! Suddenly, his
knowledge and expertise is in great demand.

Dave has been involved with the ship since its arrival. He has
not only provided this series, but he has also served on our Steering Committee,
wrote the ship's history for the website, and most recently he has published
a definite and interesting history of the ship, "Mosier's Raider's:
The History of LST-325." That book is now available on board
the ship and through mail order via the book's
website. The website itself contains many terrific pictures.

The story continues. Dave now literally walks in his father's
footsteps aboard LST-325. And he does so with the same honor
and sense of dedication. Many thanks, Dave!

James Bronson, MoMM1,LST-325, 1943-1945

Dave Bronson,LST-325, 1999-present

PLEASE NOTE: These pictures are copyrighted by their respective
photographers, most notably Stan Barish
and Ted Duning.
Reproduction by any means is prohibited without prior permission.
To obtain permission, you can contact Dave at dave.bronson@mol-son.com.

LST-325 loaded, 2 June 1944

Pre-invasion church service,
4 June 1944

Anchored off Omaha Beach,7 June 1944

Stan Barish
and Lloyd Kurz examiningan abandoned tank, 12 June
1944

:
MAY 1944

On May 1, the LST-325 sailed from Weymouth to Falmouth, where
during the next few days the ship's crew received tetanus shots and the
ship received over 200 cases of 40mm ammo from the LST-56. On the
7th the ship anchored in Falmouth Bay and conducted docking exercises with
rhino ferries and small arms training was conducted for the crew. The intense
training continued to gear up as the day for the invasion rapidly approached;
on the 8th Lt.JG Stan Barish and a 32-man detail from the ship underwent
fire-fighting training at the Falmouth Navy Base.

The ship moored alongside LST-338 up the Fal River at King Harry's
Ferry on May 11, where the next day 22 replacements crew members reported
for duty. At morning muster the next morning Lt. Mosier welcomed aboard
the new shipmates.

On May 16th the ship returned downriver to the Falmouth harbor and moored
to the hard at Turnware Point for loading exercise with the 336th Engineers
and their DUKWs, or "Ducks", the Army's amphibious truck. While the
exercise was underway the crew was issued the Army style gasmask in place
of their Navy issue. Also drills in handling casualties, chemical warfare
and 20 mm and 40mm gunnery instruction were held for sections of the crew
not involved in the loading exercise.

On the 17th and 18th instructional films were shown to all hands on
aircraft identification, operating the 20mm and 40mm guns, fire fighting,
first aid, and damage control. More drills followed on the 19th as the
crew went through GQ exercises for gas attack, fire, and abandoning ship.

The LST-325 left Falmouth on the 20th, accompanied by the LST-511,
LST-391,
LST-393,
and LST-337, to the anti-aircraft gun range. The ship's exercised
with their AA guns that afternoon, firing at target sleeves towed by Royal
Air Force "Hurricane" fighter planes. They had been scheduled for more
AA drills on the 22nd, but as the ships got underway that morning they
received orders to stand down; the exercise had been cancelled.

On the 23rd the LST-325 returned to the Turnware hard, where
a jeep and a truck were loaded onto the tank deck to have measurements
taken in order to come up with the most efficient loading procedure for
the ship's first load of vehicles for D-Day. Two days later the first Army
vehicles that would make up the ship's initial Normandy load were brought
onboard.

On the 27th the ship went into drydock to have the ship's bottom repainted
and to have some modifications made to the bow doors. It had been found
that sometimes when an LST was beached the outer bottom corner of the bow
doors would get stuck in the sand and so a quick solution to that problem
was to cut off the interfering corner.

During the night of May 30 German bombers attacked the harbor of Falmouth.
All the ships anchored in the harbor went to battle stations as the guns
ashore opened fire on the raiders, but were under strict orders to not
open fire so that the Germans wouldn't be able to estimate the number of
ships. During the raid, the Germans bombed the fuel depot near the town
of Swanvale, setting it ablaze, and they also dropped parachute mines into
the bay, which had to be cleared out by minesweepers the next day.

~ Dave Bronson

:
APRIL 1944

On April 2 the LST-325 arrived in Roseneath, Scotland, and unloaded
the gear designated for the Navy base that had been brought from Londonderry,
Ireland. The ship left early the next morning and,after sailing through
dense fog, joined a southbound convoy for Falmouth, arriving there on April
5.

The LST-325 remained in Falmouth until April 15, completing the
preparation and painting of the new magazines installed the month before
in Ireland, and overhauling the generators and compressors.

On April 17 the LST-325, accompanied by the LST-332, the
LST-315
and several merchantmen and escorts, arrived in Penarth, Wales, for further
work on the main engines. On the 19th a team of 20 US Navy medical personnel
and a Navy surgeon reported aboard the LST-325 for temporary duty
during the invasion.

On the 24th the ship sailed to Swansea, Wales, via Penarth, Wales. After
having their first practice drill with the newly added 20mm and 40mm guns,
they moored to the hard at the Queen's Dock and began taking aboard Army
vehicles of the 336th and 348th Engineers. They returned to Falmouth on
the 28th and unloaded their cargo the next day.

It was during the early morning hours of the 28th that a group of LSTs
taking part in the Operation TIGER training exercise was attacked off the
coast of Devon by nine German torpedo boats. Fast and maneuverable, the
German boats evaded Allied patrols that night and attacked the LSTs without
warning. The LST-507 was torpedoed and the crew abandoned ship;
LST-531
was torpedoed and sank within minutes. The LST-289 was able to open
fire on the attackers but was also torpedoed, though they were able to
get their crippled ship back to port. Casualties from the attack were high;
a total of 198 sailors and 551 soldiers were killed or listed as missing.

~ Dave Bronson

LST-289 was heavily damaged
duringthe Operation TIGER but
limped her way back

:
MARCH 1944

The LST-325 remained at Brixham until March 6, continuing with
the loading exercises with the U.S. Army on the hard and out in Tor Bay
offloading onto rhino ferries. On the morning of the 6th the LST-325,
in convoy with the LST-388 and LST-392 and two British minelayer
escorts, steamed to Plymouth. There they moored alongside the amphibious
repair ship USS Adonis for an overhaul of the No.2 generator and
to have work done on the air blowers and air clutches.

The repair work was completed by March 13, and the next day the LST-325
moved to the Turnchapel Hard and continued loading exercises with the U.S.
Army until the 19th. On the 22nd they began unloading the ammunition for
the 3-inch gun to the base Ordnance Department, in preparation for sailing
to Londonderry, Ireland, for modifications to the ship's air defense weaponry.

On the 23rd the LST-325 got underway in company with the LST-337,
joining a convoy of nine merchantmen and six escorts. When the convoy reached
the entrance of Bristol Channel early the next evening, the two LSTs detached
from the convoy. The following day the LST-325 parted ways from
the LST-337 and continued independently on to Londonderry.

Upon mooring to the Lisahally wharf in Londonderry on the morning of
March 25, the crew began transferring all the ammunition and pyrotechnics
off the ship as the workmen from the base began removing the 3-inch gun
from the stern gun tub. By March 31, an additional six 40mm gun, six 20mm
and two ammunition magazines had been installed.

~ Dave Bronson

Londonderry

:
FEBRUARY 1944

The LST-325 remained in Devonport until February 11th. On the
8th Commodore F. H. Newton held a conference aboard the LST-325
with the captains of LST-335, 371, 336 and 388, the LSTs
that would be taking part in the exercises at Slapton Sands later in the
month.

On the 11th the LSTs and the other landing craft and escort ships got
underway for Dartmouth. On the 12th the LST-325 moored to the Brixham
Hard, further up the Dart River, and began loading aboard soldiers of A
Company, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division. These men would later
be in the initial assault waves at Omaha Beach, suffering a terrible number
of casualties. One of the platoon leaders who reported aboard this day
was a young 2nd Lieutenant named Edward Tidrick. His fate was recorded
by Stephen Ambrose in his book D-Day: The Climatic Battle of WWII.
"On his boat, Lt. Edward Tidrick was first off. As he jumped from the ramp
into the water he took a bullet in his throat. He staggered to the sand,
flopped down near Pvt. Leo Nash, and raised himself up to gasp, "Advance
with the wire cutters!" At that instant, machine gun bullets ripped Tidrick
from crown to pelvis."

Also reporting aboard the LST-325 that day for temporary duty
during the practice invasion was a naval medical officer, Lt. (jg) John
F. Kincaid, a member of the 6th Navy Beach Battalion. Dr. Kincaid also
went ashore at Omaha early on June 6th, but he survived the carnage that
day. The LCI he was on was hit 25 times by German artillery, and he tended
to the many casualties onboard the doomed craft even before he stepped
foot on the beach. Dr. Kincaid was killed less than a year later, on the
other side of the world, aboard a destroyer during the invasion of Okinawa.

On Valentine's Day the LST-325 took part in exercises at Slapton
Sands, code named DUCK II. The soldiers onboard were loaded into LCVPs
off the open bow ramp, and LCTs moored to the ramp to take their trucks
and jeeps in to the beach. The LST-325 then returned to Dartmouth,
where they remained through the end of the month, conducting loading exercises
with various Army units on the hards at Brixham.

~ Dave Bronson

Photo taken by LST-325's
Engineering Officer Stan Barishat one of the practice invasions
at Slapton Sands

:
JANUARY 1944

On January 2, the LST-325 set sail from Falmouth for Start Bay,
off the Slapton Sands training center, along with LST's 373, 372, 400,
309, 157, 308, and several other landing craft that would take part
in the maneuvers.

They dropped anchor off Slapton Sands before dawn on January 3rd; waiting
there until all LSTs in the exercise received orders to proceed to the
line of departure at 1300. From the LOD they beached on the White
Beach sector, and the Army began unloading their trucks and jeeps.
However, the fourth truck down the ramp stuck fast, despite the matting
that had been placed over the soft sands in the unloading areas to keep
the wheeled vehicles from sinking down. By the time the truck was
clear and the rest of the vehicles on board were unloaded, the ship had
been left almost high and dry on the beach and couldn't retract, despite
making several attempts to do so. They had to wait until the tide
returned that evening before the ship was able to retract from the beach
and anchor offshore.

The next morning the LST-325 set sail with the rest of the flotilla
for Plymouth, remaining there for the next couple of weeks preparing for
the next practice invasion at Slapton Sands. On the 17th, Commander
Newton (commanding officer of LST Flotilla 12, Group 35) and his staff
came aboard the LST-325; the ship he would use for his flagship
throughout the exercise.

On the 18th the LST-325 and the rest of the flotilla left Plymouth
for Start Bay. Once again they were carrying soldiers of the 29th
Infantry Division, as well as officers and men of the 2nd Naval Beach Battalion.
During the two-day maneuver the troops were off-loaded into LCVP's and
LCT's and taken ashore. Using simulated casualties from the 2nd Beach
Battalion, the 325's sailors were exercised in various methods of
bringing the wounded aboard ship.

During the afternoon of the 21st a couple of German aircraft paid a
visit to the training area. General Quarters was sounded, but the
Germans were just there to observe on this day and stayed well out of range.
Following this intrusion, each ship was ordered to keep half of its guns
manned from sunrise to sunset until the exercise was complete.

The exercise was scheduled to continue over the next several days, however
a storm that hit the English coast on the 22nd eventually forced the cancellation
of the rest of the maneuver. The ship then returned to Devonport on the
26th, remaining there for the rest of the month.

~ Dave Bronson

Conducting loading and unloading
exercisesSlapton Sands, January 1944

:
DECEMBER 1943

At the beginning of December 1943, the LST-325 was in Falmouth,
England, after arriving in Plymouth on November 25 (Thanksgiving Day).
They had sailed with a large convoy of over 50 merchant and Navy ships
from Oran, Algeria, battling submarines and German bombers that were using
the new remote-controlled glider bombs along the way.

On December 3, the ship was moved into dry-dock, with the LST-356
moored astern of them. That afternoon they began a major overhaul of the
ship's main engines and cleaning the ship's hull.

December 4th was one of the darkest days in the ship's history. Early
in the pre-dawn hours one of the ship's crew, Gunners Mate 2nd Class David
Lloyd George, was returning to the ship when he slipped on the edge of
the dock, falling 40 feet to his death. George was the only sailor to lose
his life while serving aboard the 325. He had been part of the ship's
commissioning crew, and had served through the actions at Sicily and Salerno.

Deeply saddened by the loss of their shipmate, the crew continued their
work. During this time, sections of the crew were granted 5-day leave periods,
and most took advantage to see the sights of London.

The LST-325 came out of dry-dock on December 10, mooring in Falmouth
Harbor until the 13th, when they sailed to make a test run of the engines.
The ship traveled east along the English coast to Salcombe, returning to
Falmouth on the 17th.

On the 22nd the ship moored to the hard in Helford, where soldiers and
47 vehicles of the 29th Infantry Division were loaded aboard. Once secured,
the ship withdrew from the hard, proceeded out of the harbor before returning
to the hard and unloading. They practiced loading and unloading the following
day as well, before mooring out in the harbor until the 27th.

On the 27th the commanding officer of LST Group 5, Lt. Cmdr. Bailliere
and his communications officer came aboard the 325 to observe loading
and unloading maneuvers. The 325 anchored in the river while the
LST's
309, 157, 372 and 382 each completed the maneuver in turn.

On New Years Eve the LST-325 again moored to the Helford hard,
alongside the LST-400 (see photograph below). Once again they began
loading aboard soldiers and vehicles of the 29th Division, this time under
the command of Lt. Kennedy. Once all 306 soldiers and their 82 vehicles
were safely secured aboard the heavily loaded ship, they withdrew from
the hard and anchored in Falmouth Bay. These soldiers were aboard for the
first of the series of exercises that were to take place off the shores
of Slapton Sands, beginning in January 1944 and continuing up to the Normandy
invasion.

~ Dave Bronson

LST-325 and LST-400, December
31, 1943moored at the Trebah Beach
hard in Helford, England,with soldiers, vehicles
and equipment of the 29th Infantry Division